I wrote about this monstrosity back in May 2025 here, and submitted my consultation response accordingly. Not surprisingly, I was ignored. With this being the experience for so many members of the public, is it any surprise the firms and industries responsible are held in such low regard?
TL/DR? Whatever your views of this application are (See the GCSP Portal here and search Ref: 25/04039/FUL. It’s for “Demolition of the existing building and structures, erection of an office building” on the corner of Station Road and Hills Road”), submit your comments via the portal following the guidance here, or if that’s too complicated simply email your city councillor via https://www.writetothem.com/ and ask them to submit your comment on your behalf. Some of you may also want to contact Humanise and/or the Heatherwick Studio Ltd which is behind the campaign, to discuss the issues further.
Above – a building design that shows (to me at least) that those involved are only interested in the money. My disgust towards them could not be greater because this is the main southern gateway into Cambridge which so many local residents will have to pass by every time we want to go to the city centre.
Above – the original Kett House building which is referred to in the documentation…before being overlooked completely
Unless there’s some spurious connection someone’s made similar to when some developer chap in Trumpington over a decade ago said that the shade of reconstituted was inspired by the tone of stone on King’s College Chapel. Yeah. Right. Again, this is why the public have issues with the industry. They don’t like being gaslit like that.
“Why does this building style stress you out so much?”
My neurodiverse disposition (AuDHD – suspected but am still on the waiting list for an assessment after two years) means I’m inevitably triggered by things like this that are highly likely to affect me (I have to go past the site every time I go ‘into town’ – i.e. Cambridge City Centre). With ADHD, triggers can send my anger levels from zero-to-ninety ***in a flash***. Which is what happens every time I go past a building that is being left derelict eg the Romsey Labour Club and the Hobson Street Cinema. Spending almost a decade trying to get something done with the latter is ***not normal***.
The past few years of research in neuroarchitecture shows why.
“A new study from Cleo Valentine, commissioned by Humanise, explores how the outsides of buildings in Seoul across five architectural periods, vary in the stress levels they cause passers-by.”
Above – Dr Cleo Valentine of the University of Cambridge for Humanise, Sept 2025
You can access her report here
I come back to Dr Valentine’s report further down this blogpost – but her report isn’t the only one.
Above – Why the outsides of buildings matter to human health: a global evidence review
You can read the report by Dr Anna Kim also from September 2025 here,
One planning document that might be relevant to the above is The Greater Cambridge Health Impact Assessment Supplementary Planning Document, approved in April 2025.
Paragraph 4.1 sets the criteria for when a Health Impact Assessment is required.
Above – Para 4.1 / p20 HIA-SPD (2025) GCSPS
Looking at the proposed floor space for the new buildings, the total net internal area far exceeds this minimum. Therefore the application (Ref 25/04039/FUL ) should contain a Health Impact Assessment – and one that takes into account the research from Dr Valentine and colleagues.
Above – Kett House Redevelopment Planning Statement para 4.14 p12 (2025) Bidwells
At present there is no Health Impact Assessment included. I strongly recommend that an independent HIA is commissioned – one that incorporates the findings from Dr Valentine and colleagues on how building facades contribute towards mental stress of people not only who work in or visit the buildings, but who happen to pass them. In this case because of the location, that will be in the region of millions of people per year because it involves going past Station Road Corner – where millions of train passengers pass through every year, and also the the main southern gateway into the city.
Further research by Dr Valentine and colleagues.
Some of you may be interested in this framework proposal co-authored by Heather Mitcheltree, Isabelle A. K. Sjövall Mohamed Hesham Khalil. What interests me about their work is that not only is it genuinely pioneering (similar to the new discoveries I make about my neurodiverse disposition – something I now lean into on things like this (with a combination of info-dumping and hyperfocusing. See also Zoey from KPop Demon Hunters and her neurodiverse traits).
Why I’ve been kicking off about ugly bland boring identikit buildings
I moaned about the Cambridge Biomedical Campus Discovery Drive Carbuncles in this post. I sort of feel sorry for the public engagement staff of CBC Limited as they are the poor so-and-sos who have to put up with me turning up to their community forum meetings on a regular basis. No one in the city deserves that sort of curse!
Above – 4000 Discovery Drive on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. I loath it already and it hasn’t even been built yet
“Around 1 in 10 people are especially sensitive to visual stress — and rates are even higher in neurodiverse groups.”
Given the nature of Cambridge, I wouldn’t be surprised if the concentration of neurodiverse people is slightly higher than average. So why are architects designing buildings that research is showing makes neurodiverse people more susceptible to elevated levels of mental stress?
It might simply be a case of the profession not having done the research until recently, their paymasters also not being aware, or their paymasters being unmoved by such things so long as it doesn’t affect their bottom line.
But here’s the thing. It is already hitting bottom lines in other countries. Dr Valentine again:
“I’ve spoken with people who report being unable to enter certain environments… …and when showing this to some architectural and engineering firms [in Korea], they have had clients come back to them reporting that occupants have complained so significantly that they have had to alter the designs retrospectively“
That was around six weeks ago – told you it was recent!
I’ll finish where I started and remind people that whatever your views of this application are (See the GCSP Portal here and search Ref: 25/04039/FUL), submit your comments via the portal following the guidance here,
Let’s make this planning application a test case.
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge
- Follow me on BSky
- Spot me on LinkedIn
- Like my Facebook page
The Cambridge Town Owl 